This is the only article I could find in the Los Alamos newspapers
concerning "green fire balls". This sarcastic little item refers to the
Atomic Energy Commission information office as the "thought-control office".
The reference to "the Hill" is the Los Alamos Laboratory and some living
quarters which were patrolled and surrounded by barbed wire until 1957 when the
containment area became open. Many scientists and others who worked at Los
Alamos lived at the facility. Others lived around
the base, many in Santa Fe, and commuted to work. The writer here is making
light of loose talk in the Santa Fe bars.

Many times in the late forties and early
fifties the Air Force was still
referred to as the Army. The Army Air Forces became a separate Service,
the U. S. Air Force, in September 1947, but references to the Army
remained in many press stories.

Jan Aldrich Project 1947

Los Alamos, New Mexico, Skyliner - 29 Feb, 1949

Flying Green Lights Alert Constabulary
By THE OBSERVER

Shades of the flying saucers!

Los Alamos now has flying green lights.

These will 'o wisps seen generally about 2 a. m., have alerted the local
constabulary and their presence is being talked about in Santa Fe bars.

But local wheels deny any official knowledge of the sky phenomena. Each
one passes the buck to another.

FBI Denies

A call to El Paso, Tex., brought official denial from D. K. Brown, head
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation district that embraces Los Alamos,
that his agency had not been called to deal with the matter.

At the information or thought-control office officials indicated that
they knew about the recurring green flame in the sky but indicated that it
wouldn't be wise to write about it.

Capt. Carroll Tyler, project manager, said simply that all he knew about
the lights was rumor -- the same rumors that everyone is hearing.

Call the Army

At the thought-control office the general reaction was that the matter
was out of AEC jurisdiction and the best way to find out what was going on
was to call Kirtland Field.

A call to Kirtland showed that an Army captain who asked that his name
not be used because he didn't know anything, didn't know anything. He was
eager to learn, though.

No Speculation

Official reaction was the same on the Hill except for the atmosphere of
secrecy that has been thrown about a matter discussed in every saloon and
drawing room from here to Santa Fe.

There was even no speculation. Could these be visitors from Mars or
from the Russias [sic]? No answer.

But enough competent observers had told this observer that there was
indeed something in the wine.

Shott [sic] Down Venus

And something much more tangible than the time last summer when one of
the local security officers ordered out tanks and jet planes from Kirtland
Field to shoot down a light low on the horizon that happened to be Venus, a
well-known planet.

The jet pilots, trigger fingers ready, were disgusted at that alarm.
Maybe that's why they're now querying the green lights.

Have you seen a green light lately?

Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal, Monday, Dec. 18, 1950 - p. 1.

FRONTIER AIRLINES PILOTS WATCH FLIGHT Of 'FIREBALL'

Another brilliant "fireball" streaked through New Mexico skies late Saturday night (12/16).

It was seen by Captain A. Harvey, pilot of a Frontier Airlines plane approaching Albuquerque from Gallup,
and co-pilot Merrick C. Marshall.

The two flyers reported to Dr. Lincoln LaPaz. head of the Meteoritics Institute at the University of New Mexico,
that the light first appeared in the northeast, approximately over Las Vegas. They watched the light for ten
minutes, they said, as it moved in the direction of Las Alamos. During that time the "greenish fireball" seemed
to circle Los Alamos and then head directly toward Albuquerque.

In turning, the light changed from green to a very bright white and passed over and to the rear of their
plane -- then near Albuquerque -- at an estimated speed of over "700 miles an hour."

The time when the light was first sighted was at exactly 11:25 p.m. It remained in view until 11:35.

Both pilots are experienced airmen and said it could not possibly have been another plane.

Dr. LaPaz is anxious to have reports from other observers. Things that would be of most value to him
are: (duration, observers' position; color and direction object was going when
last seen; and close observation of any noise or explosion).

Dr. LaPaz can be reached at the U of NM, telephone 8861, or at his home, teiephone 54693

Alamogordo Daily News - February 12, 1953, page 11.

Continuing investigations of the "green fireballs" which have appeared
mysteriously over the Southwest has led Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, University of
New Mexico met[e]oritics expert, to the conclusion that they may be
"man-made" according to an article in the February number New Mexico
Magazine.

"If they are man-made," LaPaz warns, "for the sake of civilization,
let's hope they are made in America."

Jack Gill, Albuquerque newspaperman, writing under the title, "The
Mystery of the Green Fireballs.," relates the history of the fireball
investigations and some of LaPaz' conclusions.

"The fireballs are Kelly green, whereas meteors are red, yellow, blue,
or white. A green color could be caused by large amounts of copper, but
this element is rarely found in ordinary fireballs. It could also
originate from certain man-made atomic fuels."

Continuing, "They make no noise. None of the observers of green
fireballs, nor persons in the area of the balls, have report any sound
whatsoever. Also the fact that they disappear and no fragments have been
found on the earth, may be evidence that their flight is controlled."

Alamogordo Daily News - March 12, 1953, page 14.

SEEING THINGS IN ALAMOGORDO SKIES

T. B. Holliday, President of Land-Air, Inc.
which handles instrumentation services at Holloman Air Force Base, and John Proctor,
vice-president, men whose scientific training qualifies them to be in the
know along such lines, said in a prepared statement recently that they saw
"an object" in the skies near here which "does not appear to be explained
by any known phenomena."

The two men said they could not estimate the size of the object because
they did not know its distance from them.

"If it was of an appreciable size," Proctor said , "its velocity when
last seen must have greatly exceeded the maximum velocity of a V-2 rocket."

Proctor described the "strange light" in the following manner. "The
night was clear and the object stood out against the starlit sky as a
brilliant orange-yellow disc, appearing to rotate slowly. It had many
colored spots around its rim and there was no indication that it formed
part of an airplane or other objects as there was no silhouette or such
configuration against the sky."

"The light," Proctor said, "moved from west to east with an upward
trajectory of an estimated 10 degrees." He and Holliday watched the object
about two and half minutes, then it suddenly shot vertically upward and
disappeared in the atmosphere within four seconds.

There have been many other instances over a period of time where
credited persons across New Mexico have seen strange sights in the skies
that have the experts baffled.

Although descriptions of the "things" seen do vary, none have been
thought to be just optical illusions and, so far [as] is generally known, all have
defied explanation.

(As an interesting aside Joel Carpenter pointed out that in the movie
"U. F. O." in one scene actors appear wearing the Land-Air uniform. Another
attempt by Greene and Rouse to make their production more authentic.)